Hand-picked tussie-mussie for the duchess

It was a case of deja vu when Maniototo woman Jane Falconer
passed a bouquet to the Duchess of Cambridge yesterday.

Mrs Falconer, of Clanachburn Garden, near Patearoa, who
featured in The Wash last week, has fond memories of meeting
Princess Diana in Dunedin in 1983 during her nationwide tour
with Prince Charles.

On that occasion, she shook hands with Diana three times, and
her children gave the princess tussie-mussies - the same type
of bouquet she gave Kate Middleton yesterday.

Describing herself as a ''keen follower of the Royal
Family'', she, along with friend Elaine Aitken, also from
Patearoa, set up camp near the steps of St Paul's Cathedral
soon after 5am. Mrs Falconer had checked out the Octagon
earlier.

''I was here at 4am in my pyjamas running down here and back
to the motel.''

She was ''elated'' after seeing Kate.

''I said to her that she was simply beautiful and she was all
coy and `no, no, no, no' and [asked] `where did the flowers
come from' [and I said] `out of my garden'.

''She said they were beautifully scented.''

Asked if she was happy to have met Catherine, not Prince
William, she said: ''Hell, yes. We are all into fashion and
beauty.''

Mrs Aitken was also beaming after giving Kate a hand-picked
bouquet of her own.